The study showed that local police can play an important role in crime prevention. It makes a strong case for boosting the numbers of community police officers although it warns against increasing police presence on the streets to an alarming degree. Its methodology was based on a range of interviews asking members of the public for their views on how best to prevent crime. Unfortunately, how to implement this recommendation was beyond the scope of the study but at least it serves a useful purpose in raising awareness of the issue.

Exercise 5. Look at these titles of academic books (A-H).Then match them to their subject areas (1-8).

A The Nature of Democracy                   7 politics

В The Significance of Dreams                 6 psychology

С The Features of Glaciated Landscapes 1 economics

D The Assessment of Language Skills     2 education

E An Approach to Free Verse                  3 literature

FThe Identification of Bees                     8 zoology

G Perspectives on Modern Taxation      5 geography

H New Perspectives on Cleopatra          4 history

Exercise 6. Match the beginning of each sentence with the most appropriate ending.

1 The study revealed a regular pattern of changes in temperature          

2 The research focuses on one particular aspect of modern society

3 The writer makes a powerful case for restructuring parliament             

4 The writers take an original approach to their theme                                         

5 Until recently there was little awareness of the problem                                     

6 I think you should broaden the scope of your research                                       

7 To date, there has been little research into the environmental effects of nanoparticles                            

8 There are many important issues facing the world today                                             

Nouns and prepositions

Exercise 1. Consider the table of groups of related nouns sharing prepositions and fill in the missing prepositions.

1.  One difficulty with the class questionnaire was that some students had already left the course and could not be contacted.

2.  She wrote a dissertation on wild flower conservation in Finland in the 1990s.

3.  The book is an exploration of the origins of the economic crisis of 1997.

4. The rationale for the present research is the need to better understand the process of agreement in international law.

5.  Research on spoken language has been considerably assisted in recent years by the availability of computerised databases or 'corpora'.

6.  Prippen's (1984) book was an inquiry into the foundations of nationalism.

7.  What is Kazuo Matsui's book about ? Have you read it?

8.  He did a study of the problem of side-impact automobile collisions.

Exercise 2. Consider the table of nouns commonly associated with particular prepositions and correct the mistakes in the use of prepositions in these sentences. There may be more than one mistake per sentence.

1.  Her dissertation produced some interesting insights to into how young children develop a visual sense of the world and the age in at which development is most noticeable.

2.  The reason of for the unwillingness of the people involved in the demonstration to be interviewed was fear of being arrested later.

3.  Hierstat's approach at to the analysis of solar phenomena is different from that of Donewski. He questioned the assumptions under behind much of the previous research.

4.  Changes of in the rate of growth of the cells were observed over time.

5.  A lack in of funding led to the cancellation of the project, and social scientists blamed the negative attitude of the government on to social science research.

6.  Jawil's article puts great emphasis into on the need of more research and argues the case of for greater attention on to the causes of poverty rather than the symptoms.

Exercise 3. Match each noun with the preposition that usually follows it.

Behind - principle, rationale.

Between - difference, relationship.

For - preference, reason.

Into - insight.

On - effect, emphasis.

to/towards - attitude, tendency.

Exercise 4. Underline typical academic noun + preposition combinations

The possible ecological effects of climate change are often in the news, as is the matter of whether the potential impact can be predicted. New work on a migratory bird, the pied flycatcher, takes things a stage further by showing how a climate-related population decline was actually caused. Timing is key. Over the past 17 years flycatchers declined strongly in areas where caterpillar numbers peak early, but in areas with a late food peak there was no decline. The young birds arrive too late in places where caterpillars have already responded to early warmth. Mistiming like this is probably a common consequence of climate change, and may be a major factor in the decline of many long-distance migratory bird species.

Key verbs

Exercise 1. Read the examples of tasks which students have been given and note key verbs for structuring academic assignments. How the underlined words can be reworded by the following ones:

1) which are part of/included in

2) organise and do

3) draw something in order to explain something

4) accepting something to be true

5) discover by calculating

6) judge the number or amount of something and adding, multiplying, subtracting or dividing numbers

7) recognise someone or something and say or prove who or what they are

8) show, make clear

9) give

10) questions whether it is true

11) look at or consider carefully and in detail

a) Discuss some of the problems involved(which are part of/included in) in investigating attitudes to diet and health. Write a critical review of an investigation you have read about, or describe an investigation you yourself could conduct (organise and do). Consider the advantages and disadvantages of different methods.

b) Starting from rest, an aircraft accelerates to its take-off speed of 60 m s~' in a distance of 900 metres. Illustrate (draw something in order to explain something) this with a velocity-time graph. Assuming (accepting something to be true) constant acceleration, find (discover by calculating) how long the take-off run lasts. Hence calculate  (judge the number or amount of something and adding, multiplying, subtracting or dividing numbers) the acceleration.

c) The fact that nations agree to follow international law demonstrates (show, make clear) that we can identify (recognise someone or something and say or prove who or what they are) ideals that are trans-national and trans-cultural.' How far is this statement true? Critically analyse any recent event which supports or challenges (questions whether it is true) the statement.

d) Examine (look at or consider carefully and in detail) how industrial growth has affected any two developing countries. Provide (give) statistical evidence where necessary and include a discussion of likely future trends.